Farmers cautiously optimistic about “someone with experience, who can be pragmatic”

The FNSEA and the Young Farmers (JA), organizers of the Les Terres de Jim festival, are calling in particular for a rapid resumption of parliamentary work.

Party and worry at the largest agricultural festival in Europe. The 10th edition of Terres de Jim began on Friday, September 6 in the morning in Mamirolle, near Besançon, in Doubs. 100,000 people are expected until Sunday. The atmosphere is festive, with an eye on politics because anger is not far away. Farmers believe they have not received a response to their historic mobilization last winter.

Farmers expect a lot from Michel Barnier’s arrival at Matignon. While waiting for the ploughing competition with tractors from all over Europe, there are cattle competitions, such as the Montbéliardes of Arnaud, a Comté milk producer in Hôpitaux-Vieux, near Pontarlier. But problems are not far away. “I work in mountain agriculture, we are affected by the wolf, says the breeder. This are attacks every day, we don’t sleep much at night. Costs are increasing, products are decreasing, I think the fall is going to be busy.”

At the national level, there are also diseases that are spreading in French livestock: bluetongue, epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) for cows or avian flu for poultry. But for Francis, based in Morteau, the new tenant of Matignon may be the man for the job. “Finally we have a Prime Minister, that’s already the first thing, he notes. Then Michel Barnier, we know him, since he is a former Minister of Agriculture.”

“I think he may not be the worst Minister of Agriculture we have had.”

Francis, breeder in Morteau

to franceinfo

His colleague Ludovic wants the new Prime Minister to address the issue of farmers’ income. “The end of the month is difficult for everyone and the working middle class, who gets up every morning, he breathes. These people deserve to have a salary. The class that suffers the most is the class that works and earns the minimum wage or just a little more than the minimum wage, these are the people that we must help.”

This is why the majority unions, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers (JA), who organize these Terres de Jim, are calling for the rapid resumption of parliamentary work on the draft orientation law for agricultural sovereignty, which has been on hold since the dissolution. Pierrick Horel, president of the Young Farmers, wants an even more ambitious text. “We must go further on the issues of access to income, competitiveness and simplification, he believes. The government must take action on this as soon as possible.”

He keeps in mind Michel Barnier’s record at the Ministry of Agriculture. In 2008, he stood up to the pro-productivist unions to implement the Ecophyto plan intended to reduce the use of pesticides. “I think we have someone with experience, who can be pragmatic, in any case we can support him in this direction”, says Pierrick Horel.

“So I am convinced that he will look the issues in the face and deal with them with distance and a good measure in the application of his policy.”

Pierrick Horel, president of the JA

to franceinfo

He also demands state-guaranteed loans for grain and wine growers to cope with poor harvests this year. If the emergency is not addressed, he does not rule out further mobilizations. “We expect Michel Barnier to set a course for agriculture”demands Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the FNSEA, the day after the new Prime Minister took office at Matignon. The union calls on him to respond “very quickly” to several questions to avoid a “return of anger” farmers.